Thirty-Five and a Half Conspiracies (10 page)

When she let me go, I grabbed her face between my hands. “You can stay with me as long as you’d like, okay?”

Her bottom lip trembled. “Thank you.”

“Now let’s get packin’.”

Apparently Neely Kate had a different idea of what “packing” entailed. She headed straight for her room and pulled a shoebox off the top shelf in her closet. After setting it on the bed, she took off the lid and pulled out a revolver. She flipped out the barrel bullet chamber, and then flipped it back closed.

“I’m not sure that’s necessary.”

Her gaze jerked up to mine. “It’s completely necessary. And I have a concealed carry permit, so don’t you be worryin’ about that part.”

“Neely Kate.”

Her eyebrows rose so high she looked like she’d gotten a facelift. “You’re in a dangerous situation, and you need someone to protect you. Trust me. I know what I’m doin’.”

She seemed so adamant, I found myself nodding my head.

“In fact,” she said, laying the gun on her nightstand, then grabbing a duffel bag out of the closet, “I think you need to learn to fire a gun yourself.”

“I already fired a gun. I shot Daniel Crocker twice.”

She stopped and put her hand on her hip. “And did it feel natural to you?”

“No, of course not.”

A smirk lit up her eyes. “Then we still have work to do.”

I considered fighting her on it, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought learning to shoot was a good idea. “Okay,” I said with a shrug. “We’ll do it.”

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. If I’d realized how happy this would make her, I would have suggested it weeks ago.

She quickly finished stuffing her bag full of clothes and toiletries, then reached into the back of her closet and pulled out a pink backpack with white polka dots and handed it to me.

My glance bounced back and forth between the bag and her face.

“You’ll be needing that later.” Then she retrieved another small bag and stuffed it with a black wig, a pair of black boots, and several items of clothing—all black.

“Other than the black dress you loaned me on Thanksgiving Day, I didn’t know you owned anything black.” Neely Kate was known for her colorful—and often bejeweled—wardrobe.

“You have your secrets. I have my own.” She hefted the bags onto her shoulders and walked out of the room with more confidence and purpose than she’d exuded in weeks.

What secrets was she talking about?

We hefted the bags onto the back seat of my truck and headed back to town. Midway through the drive, I cast a glance at her. “So have you decided who you’ll be if you come with the Lady in Black?”

She turned to me in genuine surprise. “You’ve finally agreed to the idea?”

“No, but I confess you’ve piqued my curiosity.”

A sly grin spread across her face. “No one needs to know what role I have. Only that I’m there.” She turned to face the road. “Where do you want to go for ice cream?”

That
was a very good question. Owing to Hilary’s antics, we’d been banned from the Emporium, a business that consistently changed its purpose but was currently a coffee shop and ice cream store.

“I guess we can’t go the Emporium, but Burger Shack seems like a bad idea.”

“Because of what happened to Eric.”

The assistant manager, Eric Davidson, had been found dead in his garage with his car running, so the police had deemed it a suicide. On the surface, it sounded plausible. Eric had thought he was about to be arrested for trying to run Mason off the road with the intent to kill him. The whole thing stank like week-old fish, but true to Henryetta P.D. style, they’d picked the path of least resistance. Eric was dead, so no one was fighting their explanation of events.

I suspected Eric had been murdered to keep him quiet. The real question was who had done it.

“On second thought,” I said, an idea hitting me, “Burger Shack is exactly where we need to go.”

“
I
thought
this place gave you the creeps after they found Eric smoking his last bong before he found his big one in sky,” Neely Kate said.

“Neely Kate.” I shot her a dirty look. “It still does, but I never bought Detective Taylor’s explanation about Eric’s death. Maybe we could ask a few questions.”

Neely Kate turned to me in surprise. “You want to ask questions a month after the incident?”

“Yeah, it can’t hurt, right?”

“Sounds good to me, but what are you hoping to find?”

“A clue to help us figure out who killed him.”

“I know we’re good and all, but how many mysteries do you expect us to solve at one time?”

“They’re all connected, Neely Kate. I just know it.”

“Okay,” she drawled. “Since you feel so strongly about this one, I’ll let you take the lead.”

“Good,” I said, flashing a smile. A couple of months ago, I would have shied away from this. Now I was eager to find answers. “But I need to check in with Mason.”

I pulled my phone out of my purse to text him again, but the burner phone caught my eye first. I frowned when I saw I had missed a text from Jed.

We’re on. Tonight. Our usual spot. Eight-thirty.

“It’s tonight,” I said, sounding breathless. “We’re gonna meet Jed at eight-thirty.”

“You’re lettin’ me come?” Excitement filled her voice.

“What? No!”

“You just said
we’re
gonna meet Jed. Not
I’m
. You want me to come. Just admit it.”

I snuck a glance at her, worrying my bottom lip. “It’s selfish and wrong of me to bring you.”

Her smile fell, and she grew serious. “No. We’re partners. And we’re good at this. You need me now more than ever. Who else will have your back?”

“
Jed
will have my back. He was there with me when I met Hattie on Friday.”

Her mouth made a perfect O. “Why would Jed be there? Were you meeting her as Lady?”

“No,” I scowled. “Skeeter convinced me to call Jed if I thought I needed backup … even in my personal life. Hattie was desperate for me to meet her there with the coded journal, but she just seemed kind of crazy. It seemed equally crazy to agree, but I wanted answers. So I called Jed and asked him to stay in the shadows as backup.”

“He didn’t do a very good job,” she grumbled.

“He saved my life and got shot in the process.”

“What?”

“He tried to tackle me to keep Beverly from shooting me. Every time I’m the Lady in Black, Jed is always there, watchin’ over me. Protectin’ me … even from Skeeter.” I paused, holding her gaze. “I trust him with my life.” I didn’t tell her that Skeeter had effectively made him my bodyguard by instructing him to protect my life above all others—even Skeeter’s. I wasn’t sure how she’d react to that.
I
still wasn’t sure how to react to that.

She stuck out her bottom lip. “Well, I still want to come.”

I took a deep breath. Bringing her seemed so wrong, yet something deep inside told me I needed her. Maeve had told me to trust my instincts, so I was doing just that. “Okay. I suspect if I tell you no, you’ll do something crazy and get hurt trying to sneak up on us.” I narrowed my eyes. “Jed won’t be happy.”

“Too bad.”

“Nevertheless, he’s in charge of watchin’ my back. You’ll do as he says.”

A smug grin lit up her eyes with mischief.

I pointed my finger at her nose. “I know that look. This is non-negotiable, Neely Kate. Jed has experience with these guys, and I suspect they’ll find you expendable.” I shivered at the thought. “Jed will tell you what to do to help keep both of us safe.”

She scowled. “Fine.”

“Promise me!”

She rolled her eyes and held up her pinky finger. After I locked mine with hers, she lifted her eyebrows and said with plenty of sass, “Pinky promise. Happy?”

“No,” I said, dropping my hand. “But it’ll have to do. Now let’s go look for answers about Eric.”

We walked inside and headed to the counter. I was happy to see there were only two other people in the restaurant, an older couple reading a newspaper together while they nursed their soft drinks.

I hadn’t been in since Eric’s death, and it felt strange not to see him there. While I knew he’d robbed several places trying to get money to outbid Skeeter, he’d never struck me as a murderer. Maybe I could help clear his name if he were truly innocent.

An older teen stood in front of a register. His nametag read Eugene. “Welcome to Burger Shack. May I take your order, please?” He couldn’t have sounded more bored if he had been reading the ingredients off a cereal box.

“I’ll take a hot fudge sundae,” I said, then glanced back at Neely Kate.

“Vanilla ice cream mixed with Oreo cookies, then drizzled with chocolate syrup, but not too much. Three cherries on top. Not one. Not two. Not even four. Three.” She leaned forward. “It better be exactly as I ordered it, Eugene. If you get any of it wrong, you’ll have to start all over again.”

The guy gave her a dumbfounded stare. “Wow. You sure do take your ice cream seriously.”

She put her hand on her hip and cocked her head. “You have no idea.”

He rang us up, casting worried glances at Neely Kate. She gave me a wink when he was counting the change, which was when I realized what she’d done. She’d just bought me more time to question him.

She was right. We really did make a great team.

I leaned my hip into the counter as the kid started to make my sundae. “Say … I haven’t seen Eric in ages. Where’s he been?”

His eyes flew open. “Oh. You mean Eric Davidson?”

I shrugged. “I guess. I didn’t know his last name. Just that he was an assistant manager. I love a man with power and authority, you know?” I gave him a knowing grin. “It doesn’t hurt that he’s also cute … mmm. Do you know if he has a girlfriend?” I tried not to flinch as I posed the question. It felt all kinds of wrong lying about a dead man.

“I bet he ain’t lookin’ so cute now,” the guy said with a scowl.

“Why the heck not?” Neely Kate asked.

“He’s six feet under.”

I pressed my hand to my chest in feigned surprise. “What? What happened?”

“He killed himself.” He shook his head. “Went into his garage and smoked his last reefer, if you know what I mean.”

Neely Kate gave me a smug grin.

“That doesn’t seem like the guy I knew,” I said thoughtfully. “He told me he had some big plan in the works. It was gonna make him a ton of money.”

He laughed, but it was short. “Yeah, he always had some big plan in the works. Right before Thanksgiving, he said he was about to hit it big. He thought it was gonna be his last week to work. He was so certain he wouldn’t be comin’ back, he put in his notice, but he was beggin’ for his job on Monday morning, sure as shoot.”

That backed up my theory that Eric hadn’t been all that bright. “Did he say what he was countin’ on?”

He set my ice cream on the counter, then grabbed a cup for Neely Kate’s. “Nope, but he had a new plan a few weeks later. He told me the last guys were losers. He was sure these new guys were gonna help him make it big.”

I tried to contain my confusion over his statement. Mick Gentry had been the ringleader of the group responsible for the robberies, and their aim had been to win the Fenton County underworld out from under Skeeter. I’d assumed Eric had stayed in allegiance with Mick, but now I wasn’t so sure. Did this mean someone else was involved in the plan against Mason and Skeeter?

“So what happened?” Neely Kate asked after I’d been silent for a beat too long.

“It must have all fallen through. He didn’t want to look like a loser, so he killed himself.”

I jumped in with a question. “Do you have any idea what the second thing was about? He told me he was working for some really powerful guy.”

He laughed again and turned his back to us as he started to fill the cup with ice cream. “Yeah, he told me the same thing.”

“Only fill it halfway,” Neely Kate told him in a bossy tone. “Then put in the crushed cookies … they are crushed, aren’t they?”

He gave her a look that told us his true thoughts regarding her request, but said in a polite tone, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Ma’am?” Neely Kate screeched. “Did you just call me
ma’am?
Do I look like an old woman to you?”

“No, ma’am.” Panic filled his eyes, and his hands began to shake. “I mean miss.”

“How old do you think I am?”

His panic increased, and it was obvious he was in fight or flight mode—leaning heavily toward flight. There was no right answer to that question. “Uh … twenty?”

“That’s pretty doggone close, so does that sound like a
ma’am
to you?” She spat out
ma’am
as though it was synonymous with slug.

He shook his head violently. “No, miss.”

She pointed her finger at him. “That’s right. I’m a
miss
, and don’t you forget it.”

“Yes, ma’am … I mean miss,” he added hastily as he turned his attention to the cookies he was adding to her ice cream.

Neely Kate turned to me, her eyebrows high and her eyes darting toward her victim.

Crappy doodles, she was good.

“Do you remember anyone talking to him here at the restaurant?” I asked in a breezy tone, as though nothing had just happened.

“Uh … yeah.” He sounded flustered. “Not when he was workin’ on the first plan, but someone was here a few days before he died.”

“Do you remember what he looked like? Since Eric isn’t available, maybe I’ll look him up. I
do
love me a powerful man.”

“I don’t remember.”

The kid added more ice cream, then glanced at Neely Kate. She nodded her head. “Now you be sure to mix that up real good, you hear?” Her tone had more bite than I was used to hearing from her, and I had to admit I’d be nervous in our server’s shoes.

“Yes, ma’am.” He cringed and turned red. “Miss! I mean miss!”

She scowled, looking like she was about to give him another tongue-lashing, but he turned on the mixer, which made it too loud for me to ask him more questions. Neely Kate leaned into my ear. “I think he knows more. I’ll keep shaking him up, and you keep peppering him with questions.”

“You are truly evil,” I said with a grin.

Her eyes twinkled. “And you love me that way.”

“As long as I’m on your good side.”

I took a step away, and the machine stopped a few seconds later.

“You let me see that cup before you do another thing to it,” Neely Kate demanded.

He brought the cup over to her, and she shook her head and tsked. “You call that sorry mess good? It’s not nearly mixed enough.”

He took a step toward the machine.

“
What on earth do you think you’re doin’?
Stir it by hand, or you’re gonna crush all the cookies!”

His eyes widened in dismay, and she gave him a shooing motion. “Well, go on. What’re you waiting for? Jesus to come back in all His shining glory to do it for ya? He’ll have better things to do than your job, don’t ya think?”

He looked around for something to stir the ice cream with, his hands shaking.

I continued with my line of questioning. “If you remember the guy comin’ in and talkin’ to Eric, you must remember what they did.”

The kid finally found a spoon and started stirring. “They just sat at a table in the dining room and talked for a few minutes.”

“And you said it was a few days before he died?”

“Um …” He was starting to recover. “Yeah.”

I really needed to know more about this guy. On cue, Neely Kate slammed her palms on the counter. “Are you kidding me? You’re stirring too slow!” she shouted. “Speed it up!”

Flustered, he started stirring faster.

“You said he had blond hair?” I asked.

“No, he had dark hair.”

I wanted to break out into a grin. “What was he wearing?”

“How the heck would I know?”

“Jeans? Dress pants?”

“Uh …”

Neely Kate groaned. “Oh, my word! If you stir that ice cream any slower, the spoon’s gonna freeze up in there! I’m about to make you start all over again!”

His eyes widened in panic, and his arm started spinning the spoon like a whirligig.

“Did he have on nice clothes or jeans and a T-shirt?” I pressed.

“Uh … jeans and a T-shirt … The shirt had a beer logo. One of them fancy breweries.”

The courier who posted my bail wore one too. I snuck a glance at Neely Kate and decided to take a shot at this even if it was a bust. “Did you notice a birthmark on his cheek. A faint brown spot?”

He curled his nose. “How would I know? I wasn’t checking him out. I’m into girls.”

Neely Kate put her hand on her hip. “What in the cotton-pickin’ hell are you doin’ to my ice cream? Now you’re stirring it too fast! Slow down, or you’re gonna smother those cookie pieces. Now you take a good look and see how big those pieces are.”

He looked down, and Neely Kate handed me her phone. The photo of the courier was already queued up.

“Bring that cup over here,” she said in an exasperated tone. “I wanna see it for myself.”

He walked over to her, fear in his eyes, and held the cup out at full arm’s length.

She rolled her eyes. “You’ve crushed them too small, but I don’t have time to wait.”

He looked thoroughly confused, and I decided to strike while he was still racked with indecision. I held up Neely Kate’s phone. “Is this the guy?”

“What?” He shook his head as if trying to clear it.

“The guy who came to see Eric. Is this him?”

I held it closer, and he cast a glance at Neely Kate.

“Answer the woman.”

“Uh … yeah,” he said, standing back up. “I think so.”

“I think so isn’t good enough,” Neely Kate said through clenched teeth. “Take another look and be more sure.”

His nostrils flared, but he glanced at the phone in my hand. “Yeah. That’s him.”

“You’re sure?” I asked.

“Yeah. I recognize that belt buckle.” He pointed to the screen. “It’s a winner’s buckle from the Fenton County Fair Rodeo.”

“Which year?” Neely Kate asked.

His brow lowered. “I dunno.”

She grabbed the phone from my hand and zoomed in on the buckle, then held it out to him. “Try. Again.”